opium in America

When looking retrospectively at the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it is easy to recognize the numerous inventions that helped shape mankind into its present form. Inventions like electricity, the assembly line, cars and trains, the telephone and so on. We see the influence that these inventions have on us every day, because life as we know it is dependant upon these items. They play an intricate role in defining and explaining who we are as …

…was created when the medical community started to abuse them. The idea of their evil and un-American attributes were not created when people were protesting during the sixties, but rather from racist thoughts and actions prevalent during the early stages of our nation. If drugs were not early on labeled with the Chinese or the Blacks and Indians a totally different attitude towards them may be present today and our society may be entirely different.